Another year has passed, and the time has come to share some things that were acquired to celebrate my birthday today. I will say that I’m grateful that I’m actually here and able to share this with you. Not all of the pipes below were gotten specifically for my birthday (close to half), but since I hadn’t shared a bunch previously, it seemed to make sense to include them in this post. So, they’re all birthday pipes for today’s purposes.
First up, is a pipe that I got, purely to preserve and not smoke. This is sacrilege to some, as pipes are meant to be smoked, but to me, this is a work of art I just want to look at and keep pristine. I’ll probably get a little display case for it. It’s an unused Savinelli Punto Oro Corallo di Mare 2004 (Apple shape) from the 1960s with its complete packaging: outer box, Corallo di Mare brochure and generic Savinelli brochure, Punto Oro drawstring sock, and two different length brass inner tubes. Because the Corallo di Mare finish is raw briar, it gets soiled and grubby with use. You rarely ever see pipes from this line this clean and bright—it’s truly a rarity, especially with all of the sundries that often go missing. I have no shortage of soiled Corallo pipes to smoke. Keeping this one virginal will certainly not be a sin.
Here are another three pipes that will remain unsmoked; they all have KBB Clovers with no ampersands, so probably circa late 1930s. Here’s a paneled KB&B Lady Jewel (unfortunately missing the jewel on the stem, otherwise pristine, and completely intact):
As a fan of craft beer, I was excited to add this unused KB&B O’Keg with its beer keg tap on the shank to the collection:
Here’s a KB&B Silver Yukon S78 that reminded me of the gold and silver electroplated Dunhill pipes that @Ahi Ka and @Humblepipe listed awhile back:
I’ve long wanted a Comoy’s Brasenose, with its caricature-like proportions (I did caricature illustration for the majority of my art career); it’s stamped “LONDON MADE” (in the football shape). This one is stamped “SPECIAL” as opposed to “EXTRAORDINAIRE” and might be from the 1920s. It may have been affordable because the stem doesn’t have a three part “C” and is a later replacement (it’s a stamped “C” with paint fill), but the fit is perfect; having never examined any other examples for this shape, I have no idea if this may in fact be the correct stem for this pipe. Regardless, I’m glad to have it!
I was very excited to add another first generation Savinelli Punto Oro (this one is a 1003, circa 1958) to the arsenal. As you’ve seen me post before, these pipes bear the Brebbia Gnome stamp, but not the Savinelli shield; Enea Buzzi of Brebbia fame was still making pipes for Savinelli during this period and into the ’60s and this stamp was an assurance of quality of sorts.
What’s more exciting is the addition of the next pipe, a Savinelli Bizzarra 0014, which also bears a Brebbia Gnome stamp! Prior to this, I’d only encountered this stamp on first generation Punto Oro pipes. I don’t know if this designates the Bizzarra as a higher tier pipe, or where it falls into the timeline. I suspect it having the Gnome stamp preceded being used on the Punto Oro pipes. I don’t think I’ve seen this Savinelli shape prior to this.
Keeping with the Savinelli theme, I opted to grab the smokingpipes.com 25th Anniversary pipe. This year, they made eleven pipes in the Natural Smooth finish; twenty-nine in the Burgundy Smooth; and thirty-five of the Sandblasted. I thought, “Hmmm. Unique shape. Silver army mount fittings. Anniversary with silver SPC rondelle. Long history of the two companies working together. Regular customer of both. Geez, only eleven Natural finishes? Pretty nice Straight Grain. I‘m going to kick myself if I don’t grab one. It’s only money.”
I initially missed out on the Missouri Meerschaum 155th Anniversary pipe set with bone bits because I waited too long, thinking it’ll be awhile before they sell out all 155 sets. I was wrong. I later got a used set missing some components and packaging. After that, I got an unused set, numbered 63, which was perfect as it corresponds to my birth year. Customer service at Missouri Meerschaum is awesome—they replaced the missing sticker for the pipe in the used pair, and provided replacement packaging. I’ll definitely smoke the used set. This is the unused one:
These days, most people think of Rossi pipes as budget versions of Savinelli pipes, but Rossi was its own company for a very long time before Savinelli took over the brand. Below is a gorgeous Nino Rossi pipe made for the Jolly Roger tobacconist in Saint Thomas.
Chinese pipes often get a bad rap. The company that makes Roadtown and HS Studio pipes also has a higher end brand, Cpipes. I thought this Cpipes Briar Root Calabash/Dublin with Bamboo shank and carved stem was pretty nifty with its 360⁰ grain on the top of the stummel.
Most of you know I love big pipes that provide long smokes for my UFC viewing on Saturdays, which run in excess of six or seven hours if you include the after show. I lucked out with scoring this Todd Bannard aka @sasquatch Briar, Sweat, and Tears (BST) Tall Stack that Premal Chheda over at Smokers’ Haven had. It will go into my regular Saturday UFC rotation.
I’ve often found myself drooling over @tfdickson ’s marTelo and BST pipes, so, when smokingpipes.com announced they had three new marTelo pipes to offer, I checked them out right away. I love the LC shape and it didn’t take long to decide to grab this pipe. I found the sandblast and purple and pink stem mesmerizing and knew I needed to snag it before someone else did.
I’ll possibly share other goodies later today. I was born at 11:27 am EST, so I don’t like to open gifts before that. I took all of these photos last night in anticipation of the electrician that is here today possibly turning off the power, which would’ve affected my lighting set up.
First up, is a pipe that I got, purely to preserve and not smoke. This is sacrilege to some, as pipes are meant to be smoked, but to me, this is a work of art I just want to look at and keep pristine. I’ll probably get a little display case for it. It’s an unused Savinelli Punto Oro Corallo di Mare 2004 (Apple shape) from the 1960s with its complete packaging: outer box, Corallo di Mare brochure and generic Savinelli brochure, Punto Oro drawstring sock, and two different length brass inner tubes. Because the Corallo di Mare finish is raw briar, it gets soiled and grubby with use. You rarely ever see pipes from this line this clean and bright—it’s truly a rarity, especially with all of the sundries that often go missing. I have no shortage of soiled Corallo pipes to smoke. Keeping this one virginal will certainly not be a sin.
Here are another three pipes that will remain unsmoked; they all have KBB Clovers with no ampersands, so probably circa late 1930s. Here’s a paneled KB&B Lady Jewel (unfortunately missing the jewel on the stem, otherwise pristine, and completely intact):
As a fan of craft beer, I was excited to add this unused KB&B O’Keg with its beer keg tap on the shank to the collection:
Here’s a KB&B Silver Yukon S78 that reminded me of the gold and silver electroplated Dunhill pipes that @Ahi Ka and @Humblepipe listed awhile back:
I’ve long wanted a Comoy’s Brasenose, with its caricature-like proportions (I did caricature illustration for the majority of my art career); it’s stamped “LONDON MADE” (in the football shape). This one is stamped “SPECIAL” as opposed to “EXTRAORDINAIRE” and might be from the 1920s. It may have been affordable because the stem doesn’t have a three part “C” and is a later replacement (it’s a stamped “C” with paint fill), but the fit is perfect; having never examined any other examples for this shape, I have no idea if this may in fact be the correct stem for this pipe. Regardless, I’m glad to have it!
I was very excited to add another first generation Savinelli Punto Oro (this one is a 1003, circa 1958) to the arsenal. As you’ve seen me post before, these pipes bear the Brebbia Gnome stamp, but not the Savinelli shield; Enea Buzzi of Brebbia fame was still making pipes for Savinelli during this period and into the ’60s and this stamp was an assurance of quality of sorts.
What’s more exciting is the addition of the next pipe, a Savinelli Bizzarra 0014, which also bears a Brebbia Gnome stamp! Prior to this, I’d only encountered this stamp on first generation Punto Oro pipes. I don’t know if this designates the Bizzarra as a higher tier pipe, or where it falls into the timeline. I suspect it having the Gnome stamp preceded being used on the Punto Oro pipes. I don’t think I’ve seen this Savinelli shape prior to this.
Keeping with the Savinelli theme, I opted to grab the smokingpipes.com 25th Anniversary pipe. This year, they made eleven pipes in the Natural Smooth finish; twenty-nine in the Burgundy Smooth; and thirty-five of the Sandblasted. I thought, “Hmmm. Unique shape. Silver army mount fittings. Anniversary with silver SPC rondelle. Long history of the two companies working together. Regular customer of both. Geez, only eleven Natural finishes? Pretty nice Straight Grain. I‘m going to kick myself if I don’t grab one. It’s only money.”
I initially missed out on the Missouri Meerschaum 155th Anniversary pipe set with bone bits because I waited too long, thinking it’ll be awhile before they sell out all 155 sets. I was wrong. I later got a used set missing some components and packaging. After that, I got an unused set, numbered 63, which was perfect as it corresponds to my birth year. Customer service at Missouri Meerschaum is awesome—they replaced the missing sticker for the pipe in the used pair, and provided replacement packaging. I’ll definitely smoke the used set. This is the unused one:
These days, most people think of Rossi pipes as budget versions of Savinelli pipes, but Rossi was its own company for a very long time before Savinelli took over the brand. Below is a gorgeous Nino Rossi pipe made for the Jolly Roger tobacconist in Saint Thomas.
Chinese pipes often get a bad rap. The company that makes Roadtown and HS Studio pipes also has a higher end brand, Cpipes. I thought this Cpipes Briar Root Calabash/Dublin with Bamboo shank and carved stem was pretty nifty with its 360⁰ grain on the top of the stummel.
Most of you know I love big pipes that provide long smokes for my UFC viewing on Saturdays, which run in excess of six or seven hours if you include the after show. I lucked out with scoring this Todd Bannard aka @sasquatch Briar, Sweat, and Tears (BST) Tall Stack that Premal Chheda over at Smokers’ Haven had. It will go into my regular Saturday UFC rotation.
I’ve often found myself drooling over @tfdickson ’s marTelo and BST pipes, so, when smokingpipes.com announced they had three new marTelo pipes to offer, I checked them out right away. I love the LC shape and it didn’t take long to decide to grab this pipe. I found the sandblast and purple and pink stem mesmerizing and knew I needed to snag it before someone else did.
I’ll possibly share other goodies later today. I was born at 11:27 am EST, so I don’t like to open gifts before that. I took all of these photos last night in anticipation of the electrician that is here today possibly turning off the power, which would’ve affected my lighting set up.
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